of reading his works, which he affirmed approached more nearly to the manner of Plautus than any author had yet done before him. Emanuel and Joam III. with their families often witnessed the representation of his plays ;-they were privately performed, and one of his daughters, who was lady of the bedchamber to the Infanta D. Maria, acted in them. This daughter herself wrote comedies, and compiled grammars of the English and Dutch languages. A shocking anecdote is related of Gil Vicente :-growing envious of the dramatick talents which his eldest son had displayed, he sent him to India, to get rid of him, and there the youth was slain. It is remarkable that these plays have never been re-published, though they are highly esteemed, and exceedingly rare.

But notwithstanding this beginning, which was perhaps more promising than in any other country, the drama has not flourished in Portugal. The richness of the Spanish theatre has probably occasioned the poverty of the Portugueze. During the Castillian usurpation it was a wise part of the usurper's policy to render the language of the country unfashionable, and encourage the Portugueze authors to write in Spanish. There had been writers unwise enough to do this even before the fall of Sebastian, Spanish poems are to be found among the works of Sa de Miranda, Ferreira, and Camoens himself. Fortunately however for their countrymen, Barros and Moraes and Camoens had already modelled, and enriched, and perfected their language, and given them a national literature, which pride, as well as patriotism that never lost its hope, stimulated them to preserve. But many were led astray, and, wanting either feeling or foresight, Castillianized themselves during the reign of the Philips. During this time, which was the flourishing age of the Spanish drama, Spanish plays were represented at Lisbon, as English ones are now at Edinburg. They were not in the dialect of the country, but they were sufficiently understood by all the audience. After the Braganzan revolution, as the influence of bigotry became greater, the theatre was discouraged, and, in later days, to the disgrace and degradation of national literature, the opera has supplanted it as a fashionable amusement.

Of the Portugueze, who wrote in Spanish, Manoel de Faria e Sousa is the most celebrated; a man of great learning and considerable genius, yet of such execrable taste that his writings are rather a reproach than an honour to the language. Besides his criticisms, and the great historical works by which he is best

known, he published nine volumes of poems. It is an extraordinary fact, that no complete set is known to exist. The least imperfect, which contained only five of the nine volumes, was in possession of D. Fr. Manoel de Cenaculo Villas Boas, bishop of Beja. We say was in his possession, because we know not whether that truly excellent and venerable prelate be still living, nor whether his library has escaped the dreadful ravages which the French committed in that part of Alentejo, when the Portugueze first revolted against Junot and his army of ruffians.

Faria e Sousa had no lack of patriotism; he wrote in Spanish partly because he thought it more grandiloquous and therefore more suited to his own ambitious style, and partly because he expected to be more generally read. There are other writers of his age who may justly be stigmatized as literary renegados. When the Braganzan revolution took place, the literary taste of all Europe had been corrupted, and from that time, till the middle of the last century, Portugal produced no poets worthy of being ranked with those of the age of Sebastian. Even when the absurdities of a conceited and bombastick style were exploded, this degradation of language which bad writers, and especially bad poets, every where occasion, was felt and acknowledged, and the Portugueze had still farther debased it by the vile fashion of laying aside sterling old words for new ones of French derivation, and of barbarizing their own nobler tongue by introducing French idioms. The first modern poet who distinguished himself by the purity of his language, was Pedro Antonio Correa Garcam, a member of the Arcadian Society. Another member of this society, the Desembargador, Antonio Diniz da Cruz e Silva, stands unrivalled in the latter

ages of Portugueze poetry. His Pindarick odes were pub

lished in 1801, after the author's death, under his Arcadian name, Elpino Nonacriense. His dithyrambicks, some of which are very spirited, still remain unprinted. The poem which has made him most popular, is a mock-heroick, consisting of eight cantos, in verso solto, and entitled the Hyssopaida. Joze Carlos de Lara, Dean of Elvas, used, for the sake of ingratiating himself with his bishop, to attend him in person with the hyssop, at the door of the chapter-house, whenever he officiated: after awhile some quarrel arose between them, and he then discontinued this act of supererogatory respect; but he had practised it so long that the bishop, and his party in the chapter, insisted upon it as a right, and commanded him to continue it

as a service which he was bound to perform. He appealed to the metropolitan, and sentence was given against him. This is the story of the poem. After his death, the dean's successor,

who happened to be his nephew, tried the cause again and obtained a reversal of the decree; a prophetick hope of this eventual triumph is given to the unsuccessful hero. The Hyssopaida having been long circulated in manuscript was privately printed in 1802, with the false date of London. Permission never could be obtained for publishing it; indeed it is surprising that it should ever have been asked, so undisguised is the general satire.

Domingos dos Reis Quita, who has likewise obtained a high reputation, was another member of the Portugueze Arcadia. His tragedy of Ines de Castro found its way, some years ago, into our language, in a publication called the German Theatre. Poor Domingos dos Reis would have been surprized at seeing himself there, and still more at finding the title of Don prefixed to his name, which was just as if a Frenchman had translated Burns and dignified him with the title of Milord. His father was a tradesman, who being obliged, by unfortunate circumstances, to leave Portugal, left him when only seven years old, with six other children, to be brought up by the mother in what manner she could. Remittances from the father soon failed, and Domingos, at the age of thirteen, was apprenticed to a barber. From his earliest youth he was fond of reading, and especially of poetry. Luckily the works of Camoens, and of Francisco Rodrigues Lobo, fell into his hands; he studied them, learnt great part of them by heart, and imitated the best models which the language could supply. During many years he continued to write verses in secret, and when at length he had acquired confidence enough to shew them to his friends, he produced them not as his own but as the composition of a monk in the Azores. An amatory sonnet betrayed him: he soon attracted the notice of his literary contemporaries, and was introduced to the Conde de S. Lourenco, who was ever afterwards one of his best friends. Having thus obtained patronage, he learnt Spanish, Italian, and French, to compensate as much as possible for the deficiency of his education, and studied all the most celebrated authors in these languages, and as many of the Greek, Latin, German and English as were translated. At this time the Portugueze Arcadian Society was formed, for the purpose of restoring fine literature, and especially poetry, in a country where they had so long and so greatly

degenerated. It is highly to the honour of those persons who established it, that Domingos dos Reis, notwithstanding his humble rank in life, was unanimously chosen one of their members. There were indeed some persons illiberal and envious enough to console themselves, for their own natural inferiority, by sarcastical remarks upon his poverty, and his former employment; but such satire neither injured him nor gave him pain. The Archbishop of Braga, when nominated to that see, would have taken him into his household, (a situation which he greatly desired, for his mind was of a religious character) had not some wretched bigot persuaded his grace that it did not become him to have a man of wit about his person; and for this crime of wit the untainted morals, unsuspected piety, and exemplary life of Domingos could not atone. Pombal thought highly of his talents, and wished to have rewarded them, but here also some envious enemy interfered, and the poet was praised and suffered to continue poor and dependant. The earthquake, which destroyed Lisbon, deprived him of the little he possessed in the world, and left him houseless and destitute; this, however, occasioned all the comforts of his future life. His best and truest friend was a lady, by name D. Theresa Theodora de Aloim, the wife of Balthezar Tara, a physician; into their house he was received when he would not else have had where to lay his head, and with them he continued to reside, rather as a brother than as one indebted to their bounty for a subsistence. In 1761, symptoms of consumption appeared in him, and brought him to the brink of the grave: but by the unremitting attentions of D. Theresa and her husband, the fatal effects of the disease were warded off. Six years afterwards he had a second attack, and was a second time preserved, Tara and his wife nursing him with incessant care, and rising many times in the night, the one to watch the changes of the disease, the other to administer food or medicine. With these excellent friends, Domingos was as happy as a man can be who feels himself dependant. Motives of duty at length made him leave a home in which he had been so long domesticated. His mother, who till this time had lived with one of her married daughters, was now, in her old age and infirmities, become burthensome to a family which was numerous and poor. Domingos therefore took a house for her, and removed to it for the purpose of contributing to the comfort of her latter days. Some of his friends represented to him that this was a rash undertaking for one who had no certain income, and no other reliance than

on Providence; to which he replied, that Providence, by which all things had their being, which provided for the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, and which he beheld shining in the stars and vegetating in trees and herbs, would not forsake him. This faith was never put to the proof. Within six weeks after his removal, he was suddenly taken ill; Dr. Tara immediately had him carried to his own house, that he might again be attended with that affectionate and indefatigable care which had twice before saved his life; but the disorder baffled all medical skill, and, after six days suffering, he died, in the year 1770, and in the 43d year of his age.

RULE

FOR EXTRACTING THE CUBE ROOT BY APPROXIMATION.

DIVIDE the given number by the assumed root: extract the square root of the quotient: multiply the root thus found by 2: add to the product the assumed root: and divide the sum by 3.

EXAMPLE. What is the cube root of 256047875?

Assumed root 6,00) 2560478,75

Take away 75 x 2 + x3 which are very small and it becomes

r

a square: r2+3rx+2·25 x2

Extract the square root: r+ 1.5 ≈

Multiply by 2: 2r+3x

Add r: 3r+ 3 x

Divide by 3: r+x=true root.